SEO isn’t dead. It has just evolved.
Every year Google release new updates to their search engine algorithm and they never release what they’ve changed and improved directly. It is the job of your SEO company to do their own research and make the relevant manual changes to your website to improve your SEO rankings.
We get asked all the time about SEO, especially with our local clients based in Hampshire, as they are usually targeting location based clients, where things like keywords are still important (although less important than they used to be).
From our research, here are the top SEO trends for 2016.
1.HTTPS Domain
Google now has a ranking signal for HTTPS based domains. Websites with an https:// string will rank higher than websites without. This means your website should have an SSL certificate at domain level. This is easy to set up and your SEO agency should recommend it to you. Once it’s setup correctly a small padlock will show in the address bar.
2. Page images with ALT tags
Pages with 1 or more images will rank higher than web pages with no images at all. Each image should have a well-written ALT tag.
3. Site loading speed
Ideally you want your website to load within 3 seconds, maximum. Websites that load up in less than a second on average convert far higher than websites that take longer to load. A good SEO agency will come up with ways to improve your site speed. These should include things like page caching and image optimisation.
4. In-depth, longer quality content
No matter what some agencies will tell you, longer, quality content with a good mixture of keywords will help you become more searchable on the main search engines. Try and write content between 400-800 words. Keep your content fresh and regular.
5. Short URL’s
No one wants to type a long URL to find you. The shorter your web address the better. Have a good mixture of keywords and keep your permalinks relevant to the subject of the page/blog.
For example: The name of this blog is ‘How have SEO trends changed in 2016?’,
We could have the address as https://www.damteq.co.uk/How-have-SEO-trends-changed-in-2016/
We have purposely shortened the URL to: https://www.damteq.co.uk/seo-trends-2016/
What will help my website convert more?
The number one question we get asked when we talk to people about marketing their business is how they can get more conversions. It’s all well and good having a great SEO ranking on Google, but if the visitor isn’t encouraged by what they see on your website, you’re driving people down a dead end road.
Key things to remember:
- Simple site structure
- Easy to read, well constructed content
- Call to actions
- Lead generating forms
- Regular content optimisation
